West Rowan News, Events, and Fun

      The Cleveland, NC zoning/planning board met tonight 2-27-2023 for the scheduled monthly meeting. Two resident requests were heard; a request to subdivide property and request for an exception to a rule requiring pools to be in back yards. In addition, three residents signed up to address the issue of goats being allowed in town limits. The goat issue was brought up at the last town board meeting and was referred to zoning/planning at that time.  Dividing Land with a Rowan County Right-away  Robert Beck asked the board for a special use permit to divide his property lot SUP20230113. The land in question is located just off Old Hwy 70 around Young's Mountain. He said that he wanted his son and any future wife to have five acres of the land to build a house in the future. Beck and his son own a business on the property which was approved previously by Cleveland town board. The concern with dividing the property as requested, per the town, was that the divisio...

Cleveland NC zoning/planning board met tonight Dec 15, 2022.    Members present included: Jim Brown Chip Adkins Bryan Little John Brown Grayson Phillips Gaye Shelton Travis Elliot (owner and manager of Tobo's) asked for a conditional use permit to serve beer at Tobo's (restaurant) during lunch hours at 210 Amity Hill Rd, Cleveland (behind the new Food Lion).   Elliot said that he is currently open to 2 pm Tues - Sat. He said that he plans to be open one night a week in the future, probably Friday or Saturday. He said the restaurant would not be open late hours; he plans to close at 8 pm when adding evening hours.  Zoning board took eight minutes from opening to vote unanimously to approve beer/wine on a conditional basis for Tobo's. Adkins made the motion to approve, and Phillips seconded.  Zoning business was closed and planning opened with one item on the agenda, to change parcel 251, tax map 078 from General Business to Central Business.  Little sai...

    It was a busy night at the Oct 2022 Cleveland, NC town board meeting. In addition to covering a lot of ground as far as topics, there were fourteen people at the meeting not including the nine who are on the board or work for the town (23 total attendance). Public Comments Cleveland resident Jeanette Rankin addressed the town board at the start of the meeting. She said that she was concerned that the town was talking about investing in the new park on School Street when nothing had been done at the Town Park for years.   “We’ve got all that land. Nothing there,” said Rankin. “All you’ve got is a shelter.” She said that the children in town needed safe playground equipment and a place to play basketball. “I’m talking about adding things,” said Rankin. Commissioner Richard Taylor said that there are problems with getting bids on doing work at the park. Someone did rotary wash the poles on the playground equipment, but they did not want to do any more wor...

The town board of Cleveland, NC met tonight Mon 8-8-2022. All board members were present except for Commissioner Danny Gabriel.  Members of town board approved a new alternate to the town zoning board, John Brown, who was the only applicant. Brown is the son of Jim Brown who is currently on the zoning board.  Peacock Mural on Depot St. The board voted to spend $2496 for a wall mural on the old Moore Store building on Depot St which is owned by Commissioner Richard Taylor. The contracted artist is Jenny M. Booe who is the niece of Gabriel. The proposed sketches were of peacock wings. Mayor Pat Phifer said that angel wing murals have been popular destination stops for photos recently with a geocache web app. He said that a group dressed in tuxes with a horse trailer had stopped to get photos at Leo's barbershop Coca-Cola mural recently. Leo's mural is on the national app.  Phifer said that he hoped to have multiple murals. He has plans for a hot air balloon for the Mason bu...

Tonight Monday 6-27-2022 was the scheduled meeting of the Cleveland, NC zoning/ZBOA board. The group meets every other month and as needed with special called meetings.  Under zoning concerns, Naga Venicata Pullarad Maddissetti was present to request a change from R15 to A1 for 10 acres of property on Kesler Rd. (Tax Map 272 Parcel 022). Per board member Jim Brown, R15 is zoned for mobile homes while A1 is agricultural.  Maddissetti was a few minutes late to the meeting, and the board was about to table the request when he arrived. Since Maddissetti did come, he was able to answer questions which were mainly about concerns with the type of farming proposed and the impact on the community with noise and odors.  Maddissetti said that he was planning to farm organically and have a "beautiful garden." He said that he had farmed in Chile and hoped to do the same here. His plan is to start with one acre of the land and build a business from there. His business plan includes gre...

The Cleveland, NC zoning board approved a 70 x 90 metal building for Tar Heel Materials & Building. The company is located at 725 Kesler Road which runs from Old 70 Main St over to Statesville Blvd.  The new building will have a solid back and eight garage doors to a loading dock. The height is 18 foot and 22 foot with the roof. The building will be 49 feet off the back property line and will not be visible from the road. A burm is already in place as well as mature trees in the 30 to 40 foot range.  Commissioner Chip Adkins noted that the current burm is looking "a little rough." A company representative said that it is hard to landscape with the current fence which was put in by the state but is not maintained by the state.  On a side note, it was confirmed that the burner/incinerator (previously approved by zoning) will be another fifteen weeks; The delay is related to the general delay of construction and other goods currently. Commissioner Bryan Little made a mot...

  The Cleveland, North Carolina zoning board turned down a request for a conditional use exception at a special called meeting tonight 3-11-2021. Cleveland resident, George Eller, wanted to turn on electricity to a 16x24 storage building on his property at 202 School Street. He had installed the portable building last year, and power lines had been added. But, the building did not meet zoning guidelines then or now. The issue came up when he tried to have electricity turned on. The power company would not turn on electricity with the building not to zoning standards. Eller stated that this was when he became aware of the zoning requirements.  Since Eller was not able to have power to his storage building, he checked with Cleveland town hall and requested an exception which goes before the zoning board.  Tonight Eller explained his dilemma and said that he was not aware of the rules beforehand. He noted that the building in question is at the back of the lot and actually a...

  Discussions about food trucks and wine/beer town regulation guidelines continued tonight 8-31-2020 at the scheduled Cleveland, NC zoning and planning board meeting. Proposals on these topics were requested by the Cleveland Town Board, and guidelines hammered out by the committee will ultimately go to the Board for review and possible adoption. Alcohol Sales (wine/beer only) The board agreed tonight on a definition of a restaurant which may seem pretty straightforward but can get complicated.  Members of the committee also were in agreement that beverage sales would be limited to beer and wine with liquor being excluded at restaurants in the town.  From there, things got more complicated. The sample copy reviewed allowed for 49% of restaurant sales to be alcohol, but board members weren't keen on sales of beer and wine being that high. Member Jim Brown suggested that the sales limit be at 35%, and board members agreed.   Committee members discussed the sale of ...